The One With Answers To YOUR Questions - I Love Marketing With Joe Polish And Dean Jackson - Episode #34

I'm dean jackson, he's joe polish, and this is the I love marketing podcast. Hey, everybody, it's Dean Jackson and Joe.

Polish together again as, as always, every week. Sort of like a painful family member that you have to talk to for the sole purpose of raising the kids, you know, or something like that. I don't even know.

We put on a civil front to raise the kids. That's it. Yeah, yeah.

But what we're raising instead is the most brilliant marketing savvy entrepreneurs that listen to I Love marketing and want to have a competitive edge and as I say at Piranha Marketing, eat their competition alive and really not even have any competition. Because the marketing that they do, the way that they uniquely package their products or services, the way they communicate with the world, the way that they develop relationships through all the various means are done following a before, during and after unit as Dean Jackson so eloquently invented, and using the a profit activators that we are always referring to and talking about. So on today's episode, we have been requested by people we've spoken with to do some more Q and A to answer some questions. And some of our listeners find it extremely valuable to hear questions of other people, have their own questions answered and kind of hear how we would, you know, suggest and give advice in those areas. Because for the most part, it's. It applies to pretty much anyone. So that's what we're going to do today. We're going to basically just play what, like question roulette or whatever? Dean.

Question roulette.

Exactly.

I was just thinking this is episode 34 today.

Yeah.

It's amazing, isn't it?

I Love Marketing is growing up and all of the people out there that have started I Love Marketing meetup groups, we want to first off congratulate you for doing that because in the infancy.

Stage, can't even talk today.

You know, it's great that you're doing that. So the early adopters out there that are just taking on an I Love Marketing meetup group with really, you know, just very little, you know, very little coaching from us other than episodes we've done prior to this one that if you haven't listened to them, please go back and listen to the past episodes of I Love Marketing. If you're brand new to I Love Marketing, go and listen to some of our past episodes, watch some of the videos that we've put up, that sort of stuff. We are doing our I Love Marketing event very soon here. It's going to happen in a couple of weeks in the time that we're doing this. And so we're going to see a lot of you live in person in Phoenix, which we're totally looking forward to. Some of you are going to watch it live via webcast. If you're listening to this on itunes, go to the I love marketing website and there's information about our event. You can watch it live via webcast or you can come in person. We recommend in person if you can make it because you have the community there. But if you simply cannot do it live in person, then do it live webcast or reserve a set of the videos. Because we are going to create a product and that's going to be a lot of the curriculum that people that do. I love marketing meetup groups and it's, you know, it's a blueprint that you're going to run your whole entire business off of, and it's going to be really, really powerful. So for everyone that started a I love marketing meetup group, continue to give us feedback and comments, post it on the site or just let us know. And we'll continue to go deeper with the meetup groups and we will. Very soon we're going to have a place on ilovemarketing.com where we're going to have a listing of people that have I love marketing meetup groups so that those of you out there that want to go and really get face to face with people that are into marketing like we and like you are, you know, we'll do our best to have that sort of directory which will have to be updated on a regular basis. But we're, you know, we're gonna have it set up. And so you can't expect a lot from us. You know, it's not like we're charging you for any of this stuff.

So anyway, I have to keep saying.

That because there's always a person out there that gets all pissed when I say that. Oh, that's funny.

It's true, isn't it? It is.

It is true. We are charging for our event because, you know, if you've never done an event before, they cost like, you know, we're putting over a hundred grand into putting this thing on, so we have to actually charge for it so that, you know, it makes for us to get a gigantic hotel and bring in Dan Kennedy on a private plane. I mean, all that stuff costs money. So we would let the whole world come for free. But we are marketers and we want you to actually charge for your products and services, too. However, we give first before we expect to get. And for the most part, we spend our time giving, not trying to get people to buy stuff. So having said that, we are going to answer some questions. Listen as if it applies to you. And the best way, whenever we do Q and A is if you sell apples and we're talking about someone selling oranges, don't think it doesn't apply to you because you saw Apple. It's kind of the same thing. So most of the questions that we'll answer have applicability to you, even if you think it doesn't. So listen from that frame of mind, and I think you'll get the most out of our Q and A roulette here that we're going to do. Dean, I'll let you pick the very first question.

Skills is connective thinking. Is being a connective thinker where you can see how somebody else applies something and see the structure of it and how it works and how it could apply to you.

Exactly what I was going to say.

Let's try and go through as many of these questions as we can then, because we totally ran out of time on the live call. But we got lots more questions, so I think it'll be good to. To get as many as we can. So here's one. This one's from Danny Barrera. He asks if you were starting a business in this economy on a low budget, what media would you recommend marketing on? Internet, direct mail. Thanks, Daniel. What's your thought on that right away? What jumps out at you?

Well, I guess I will say when I first started my carpet cleaning company, you know, way back in the, you know, late 1989, early 90s, 1990, we were in a. In a recession at that time. Probably not in the same way it is today, but there was definitely the same sort of mindset, you know, what's going on in this economy. And it doesn't matter if it's a good economy or a bad economy. You know, people respond to what it is they want, what it is they need, you know, emotionally. So that's one thing. You know, there are certain things that change and there are fundamentals that never change. Also one of the worst mindsets, though, is a depression sort of economy. So before we talk about what media we'd recommend, or at least what I'm going to say. Dean. Dean will say whatever Dean says. Before I would say, what's the message? What's the media? You really kind of just need to come at this. I interviewed a guy on Genius Network where he Said people are saying, when's the recession going to be over? And he says, when are you going to be over the recession? I mean, if it's, if this is the way it is, you play with the cards that you are dealt and you try to create the best hand that you can to give yourself the best advantage. So before I kind of go into stuff, Dean, my whole thing about the economy is quit shooting yourself in the foot before you even start by thinking, oh my God, this economy and how are we going to overcome it? Because when you go into the outside world, you can very easily get sucked into negativity, into the mindset. And I'm not talking about denying that there's challenges for lots of people and lots of people are broke and lots of people are out of work and you know, things that, you know, people would buy up when they had more, you know, expendable revenue, that they don't do it the same way anymore. I mean, I'm not saying that. I'm just pointing out that, you know, you want to come from a position of power and do the very best that you can. And you know, I'm running a very successful business right now in the middle of a quote unquote, you know, bad economy. And we have lots of clients, thousands that are kicking ass and taking names. And there's other people that are struggling. And so what are the ones that are kicking ass and taking names doing that the others aren't. They're taking action. I mean, they're taking action.

They're not letting themselves get with a positive expectation. Yeah, I mean, so much of it is self defeating in a lot of ways. When you're, you know, if you're taking action, if your belief is that it's a bad economy and people aren't buying and you know, that's the reality that you're going to create and so much. And I totally get how easy it is to buy into that because it's all over the media. I mean, anywhere you go, it's always talk about how bad the economy is and how bad the job situation is. And if you really look at the reality of it, even if we're at 9 point something percent unemployment, the inverse of that is 90 plus percent of people have jobs. And all it really takes is one trip to the mall or to Walmart or anywhere. And what you're surrounded by are hordes of people spending every dollar they make. That's what people do. They spend every dollar they make on things that they want and they need and that's not going to change. Really?

Yeah. You know, one thing, I think I've talked about this before, but when I talk to my professional cleaners and restorers, you know, I talk about how my father was a locksmith and how, you know, you couldn't drive down a neighborhood and know who was going to, you know, get in a fight with their husband or their wife and lock the person out of the house that night, or who was going to, you know, get drunk and lose their keys and lock their keys out of their car and, you know, who's going to, you know, break some padlock or something, you know, I mean, you just couldn't really just drive through neighborhoods and know it was one of those sort of emergency sort of businesses that you kind of at the beck and call. And I said, for like carpet cleaning business, you can drive through neighborhoods and you can kind of say, well, these are the sort of homes that I would like to service. And there's all different variations of that and all types of different businesses. You know, even if you're not in a service business, even if you're, you know, a graphic designer, even if you're, you know, a website developer, you know, there's all variations of that. But the point is, there's people out there, like you said, you know, say the unemployment rate was, you know, 25%. There's still, you know, three out of four people have a job and those people live in homes and those people have computers and there's access to those people. And so the real question to Daniel is, we have no earthly idea what you're selling. So for us to say you should use Internet or direct mail would be foolish on our part because we don't even know what you're selling. So we can only, you know, we can only speak, you know, in generalities about what media you'd recommend. What I would say, though, is what I would tell my cleaners is if you're driving through a neighborhood, I think of these people as they all have money that belongs to me and I need to make a withdrawal out of their bank account. And that withdrawal slip comes in the form of a sales message. And it could be a direct mail letter, it could be a postcard, it could be a free recorded message, it could be a TV or radio ad, it could be connection on a Facebook fan page, they could be in a Google plus circle. I mean, you know, it could be a variety of different ways, LinkedIn, you know, whatever, that you would interact and communicate with some of those people. But that's what you do. You. First off, who are they? You know, who are your, who are your clients, customers, patients, prospects? Who are they? What do they read? Where do they lurk? Where do they go? You know, like, I live in Arizona, and if I want to say, well, what's the best way to find a scorpion? Well, it's probably not in Chicago when it's freezing. You know, it's probably in Arizona where it's really hot and it's going to be underneath some rocks and stuff. And there's these. They sell these things at like Walgreens and different Walmart where they're like these scorpion flashlights that are black light flashlights. And you go. And you, you know, at night you put them on and. And scorpions are like fluorescent. They glow like a glow.

Really?

When you have. Oh, yeah, it's bizarre. And I can walk out in my backyard with a flat with one of these scorpion flashlights, and you can find scorpions in some cases all over the place. It freaks you out, right? But no one would even see these things if you weren't there. But your marketing needs to operate kind of like that scorpion black light that just makes them shine. But you got to know where they're at. I mean, you got to be fishing with bait that the fish want in the lake or the ocean or the river that the fish are at. So before we say, what's the hook, what's the bait, what's the pole? Well, what are the fish and where are they at? And if you know where they're at, what do they respond to? And that's where really understanding the mindset of your customer, your client, you know, and even in the middle of the recession, the fish don't know the difference. They still want to eat. Yeah. And, and I don't mean to demean prospects or customers and call them fish. I'm just saying what you said, Dean. You go out to any mall, people are buying shit. And what are they buying? Why are they buying it? Where are they at? The point is there's plenty of opportunity. We are nowhere in a recession to where someone is ever going to come to me and say, I can't figure out how to make it work. Are some businesses going to need certain tweaks? Yeah, absolutely.

You know, but that's what, you know, that's. And, but there's. In any, in any economy, there's always one element of almost every market that is, that's thriving. You know, it was funny because Tony Robbins asked me that same question. We were Recording a dvd. And it was, he was saying, how do, what do people do? And you know, what do you say to people who are starting a business in the bad economy? And I said to him that, you know, it reminds me of when, when I was playing tennis, we had a. You thought that every shot makes somebody happy. And if you think about that you're playing tennis, you know, every shot makes somebody happy. It's either, you know, if you hit the ball out of bounds, your opponent is going to be happy because the ball went out of bounds. If it goes in, you're going to be happy because it went in and he's not going to be happy. But the umpire, the person observing the event doesn't care one way or the other whether the ball is in or out. He's just observing it and saying it like that. So the, the translation of that into the economy is if there's some element of the economy that's not good, there's always some element of that market that somebody is happy. Let's look at the real estate market right now is probably the absolute worst affected element of the economy right now. It's the driver of the whole thing. It's what got us in the, in the mess. It's the thing that's probably in the worst shape. And if you look at it, it's true. The people who are unhappy in this market are people who bought their homes in 2005 or 2006 when the market was at its peak, and their house is worth less now than they actually owe on it. Those people are in bad way. That's the part of the market that really is hurting. The part of the market that is really thriving right now is. It's an incredible opportunity for first time buyers, for people who didn't buy a home in 2005 and 2006 because they now can get the lowest interest rates almost in history. They've got tremendous selection of homes to choose from. There's all kinds of bank owned homes that are on the market. Those people are happy. People who bought their homes 10 years ago and want to buy a bigger house now have a great opportunity because houses that were selling for a lot of money in 2006 are selling for much less money now. And the spread between the lower priced home and the bigger home is a great opportunity. It's an incredible opportunity for investors right now. Dean Graziosi, we were just talking about him and he just had this incredible launch of his rock bottom blueprint, broke all kinds of records for his business because people See that investing in real estate is a big opportunity right now. I think you have to kind of, like you said, shine that black light on your market and think, what are the elements of the market that are really thriving right now? People spill wine on their carpets in any economy, right?

Yeah, totally. The scorpions are always out in the backyard at certain times of the year and all around certain neighborhoods in Arizona, in Phoenix, because they're in pockets. It's really weird how scorpions are. But the point, you know, they're not everywhere. They're not in every neighborhood. Other na. It's, it's. I've talked a lot, even pest control people, that they can't even explain it half the time, you know, like. Well, you know, it's just weird. So they just pop up in colony.

Are they in your backyard?

Yes, yes. I got to show you some.

I come out there.

Yeah, yeah, I'll show you. It'll be pretty fun.

But the point, but here's my point.

They're always out there. But if you don't have the light, you don't know what. You can't see them. Especially at night. You just can't. And the same thing with the marketing. If you don't have the DNA, if you don't have our breakthrough DNA report, first off, download it from ilovemarketing.com and read the darn thing. And those are the things that you do in order to generate business. And part of the I love marketing calls are always to introduce whatever strategies and methods. Talk it through. But a lot of these are fundamentals. There's before, what do you do before a sale to get business? What do you do during the sale and what do you do after the sale? Those things are never going to change. You know, 500 years from now, if the planet hasn't self imploded by then, it's going to be the same. I just wanted to throw a little doomsday stuff in there. Right, Exactly. Because some people think it's going to be, you know, next year. Right.

Next year, 2012. But it'll be after our second annual out of Marketing conference.

Yeah. We'll schedule our event to make sure that we can do an I love marketing conference. Because if the planet evaporates, you're going to need marketing skills much more. I mean, they can read Neil Strauss book Emergency and get all paranoid or whatever, but the point is that's the deal. They're always out there. You just need to have the skills and the light to find it. And sometimes it's as simple as having the right tool. And so think of all of these marketing tools as all these marketing strategies tools. What tools do you need on your tool belt that you use every day? What do you need in your toolbox that you're going to use frequently? And what are the special need tools that you're going to have in your tool shed? Because all of these are a variety of marketing tools. So to answer Daniel's question, and you can say any final thing on this, Dean, and then we'll move on. I kind of wanted to go into that because I wanted to create sort of a framework for people to think about it. If you were starting a business in this economy on a low budget, what media would you recommend? Recommend on Internet or direct mail? I would rely on both. But the first question you really need to ask yourself is what are you selling? Who are you selling it to? Where are they and what do they respond to? If you don't know that, then you need to start testing a few things. You need to start communicating them. And if you already are in business and you sold something, I don't know if you're. Because we have no information to go on here, then what have the current people that have come into your funnel, how did they get there? If they came in there in a good way, just ramp up and continue to replicate and duplicate what it is you're doing. Because you don't need 100 tools in your toolbox. Sometimes you just need one or two that work really well. I know plenty of businesses that don't even need to have a website, that make plenty of money doing just direct mail and just talking to people. Plenty of my carpet cleaners, many of my carpet cleaners have websites because they just want to appease all of their friends and, and people that keep convincing them that you're never going to be successful without a website. And I'm not saying you shouldn't have a website. I think everyone should. The point is that you really got to just look at what do the fish bite on. You don't need an iPad in order to be a successful fisherman. You just don't. That's true. Maybe someone will create an app. Yeah, someone will create an app that will send out a signal. You know, I have this frickin app that I can't wait to test on Necker island, which we had a trip tentatively scheduled in March until unfortunately Richard Branson's home just burned down. Which is a bummer because I've stayed in that home like 20 times and that's where we have all of our events and everything. The home that burned down. And so it's so sad to see that incredible home and the history behind that. But he's going to rebuild it because he's Richard Branson and all that. But you know, there's an app that actually supposedly wards off mosquitoes. And when I go to Necker Island, I get freaking attacked by mosquitoes. They love me. Even if I douse myself in mosquito repellent, these bastards still, they bite me. And it's probably because I deserve it for all those mischievous things that I've done in my life. But the point is there's an app that may work for that. I'm willing to test it and see if it works for me. But the point is, until that time comes, there's plenty of things out there in the middle of a recession that works. But the only way you're going to do that is go out and do it because you'll accomplish more through movement than you ever will through meditation. And we've beat on this that horse a lot during. But you know, it is, that is truth as I know it.

So yeah, that's what I got to say. Well, you know, part of it that the reality of that question is really probably found in the personal economy of saying how can I do it with a, with a low budget that I don't have a lot of money to spend on marketing. And I think that that's really a good question to answer is what kind of things could you do on a low budget? And I think what we've just been talking about, you know, by identifying the right target market, if you really shine that black light on your market and find just the element of the market that's actually moving right now or that's actually where there is, where there's business being done and don't spend anything, any time, effort, energy on anything. But attracting that specific market like this is where really narrowing your focus, selecting that single target market, just like we talked about in profit activator number one is the most useful thing because you're going to focus all of your attention on, on attracting that market. I mean we've got people. I just did an interview with a, with a realtor up in Portland who was using our bank owned, our bank owned buyer finding program and he had generated from a standing start in one calendar year Last year over $160,000 from focusing on one segment of the market, people who want to buy bank owned homes. So I think if you're whatever business you're in, there's some element of that market that's actually, that's actually thriving and focusing your attention only on that part is probably the best thing that you could, that you could do. Okay, let's go on to another question. Joe, that's what I'm trying to say. Well, this will be good. This will fit right into something. I think you'll have a lot to say about this one. So this is from Dwight who says, Joe, I recently launched a monthly interview program patterned off the Genius network model. Thus far, my list members have said they think it's a great idea, but no one is subscribing yet. Two questions for you. One, what do I have to show or offer my list members to persuade them to subscribe? And two, do you keep an ear out for what will eventually become a hot topic while you're conducting the interview or is that done afterwards?

Okay, a hot tip while you're conducting the interview because yeah, well, this will be a easy question to answer. It probably won't be answered in the way that Dwight asked it. For anyone that's out there thinking of producing information and sharing it, we highly recommend that because as you hear me indeed talk about, education based marketing is one of the best ways for your clients to know like and trust you when you just put out stuff. And interviews are just one format in order to create content. The I love marketing episodes, sometimes they're interviews, sometimes they're us actually just teaching stuff, and sometimes they're us doing Q and A. So what I would do is look at what we're doing with I love marketing and really consider putting the information out there for free. Geniusnetwork.com I don't spend a tremendous amount of time trying to get a lot of new subscribers as a front end. It's typically a back end sort of subscription based thing that people you know, have already bought one of my marketing kits in the cleaning industry, have bought my Nightingale Conant program, have attended one of my seminars, have purchased stick strategy secrets, a variety of different other things that I have sold. And so it's usually like an add on to an already existing service. Interviews as a standalone are difficult to sell. You can get a lot of great interviews online for free. And so unless you have a really unique subject matter which people will spend a lot of money for because they really want what it is you're offering and it really is unique, then just doing interviews on generic things like fitness or relationships or how to make money or whatever, those are like the big categories Hard to sell. Just an interview. So I would. First off, what you know. To go back to Dwight's question, thus far my list members haven't said they think it's a great idea, but. No, thus far my list members have said they think it's a great idea, but no one's subscribing yet, so. Well, I don't know what the content is, Dwight, that you're sharing, and maybe you just need a more powerful pitch. Maybe if you've done some interviews or you do a couple. One of the ways that I started Genius Network was I interviewed a guy.

This is true.

I interviewed a guy on sales and persuasion. One month when I was behind on writing my Piranha Marketing letter, I used to write a monthly newsletter. I don't know why I don't do it anymore. See, I'll just be transparent here. I had a gigantic rabbit following when I would do a monthly written newsletter. And I still do stuff similar to that, but I don't publish it like I used to. And I was behind. I didn't get it written. And I was like, shit, man, you know, I need to crank something out. So I did an hour, a little over an hour interview on sales and persuasion and sent an audio cassette tape out to my list and said, this month's newsletter is this interview with this guy. And my list listened to it and they loved it. And they're like, God, can we get.

More of these things?

And so, you know, I started out, I charged eight $18.53. That's what I started out. It was called the Joe Pollard Superstar Audio Tape of the Month series. And I came up with $18.53 after talking to Gary Halbert and Dan Kennedy and say, what do you guys think I should charge for this? And they're like, come up with some random number that doesn't seem to make any sense at all. And so I did. And that's how we built it and that's how we started it. And so as far as. So my advice is just, it really depends on the content. Why don't you put it out to your list and see what they respond to? But if you've got another back end product, put it out there for free. Just put it out there for free. And model what we're doing with I Love Marketing. We've got thousands of listeners to I Love Marketing. We now have an event that we're doing. A handful of people will probably end up coming into my different, you know, business offerings and Dean Jackson's different business Offerings that he offers. But for the most part, you know, we're just putting good information out to the world because we feel it'll come back to us, you know, tenfold. And it's fun, you know, so don't. Don't do it. If you're. If you don't really. If it's not.

Well, there's never been a better time to provide information like this. I mean, when you look at what we're talking. What we've been doing right now would have been impossible when you were. When you first started doing the. The genius network. When you first.

Oh, yeah, yeah. There's no Internet.

The only way for somebody to get an audio recording was for you to send them a cassette tape with it.

Exactly.

They couldn't go online and just listen or download right into their. Right into their phone or their ipod. I mean, there's never been a better time for that. And there's so much of that available now. I really think it's. It really is the perfect way to build a community, to build an audience, to build, you know, fan base, let's call it.

Yep, exactly. And, you know, I used to even send out cassette Walkmans with headphones and with little post it notes that says, put the headphones on and press play. And then there would be a pitch as to why they should listen to. They should subscribe to my interview series. And then it would be like, you're about to hear a sampling of some of the best interviews I've done. And you can get these every month in the mail. And that was like a theatrical pitch to people that were already existing clients that I knew I could bump them into. Cost me probably about 20 bucks to do that mailing with a very cheap walkman. This is before ipods and stuff, but, you know, it's funny. I'm going to switch phones because. Can you still hear me, Dean?

Hi, Ken.

Yeah, I'm going to switch phones here. And here's another thing with doing interview series. Maybe I'll sound infinitely better on this one. And they'll be like, damn it, you cheated this half, this call. But yeah, you got to be ready to tap dance, too, if you're going to do live things like the I love marketing call, because you never know what Dean's going to do to try to mess with you. But no, I had to actually switch phones because it started beeping, saying low battery. I'm like, huh. All right, so where was I? Where was I? So I was going to respond to his next part of it. Do you keep an ear out for what will eventually become a hot tip while you're conducting the interview, or is that done afterwards? And so in my interview series, I summarize the very best idea that come out of the interviews that I do. And basically I get the interviews transcribed. I have a couple of people in my office that listen to my interviews as soon as I'm done with them, and I get their perspectives on what they think of the hot tips. And I also have my transcriber who's been doing my transcriptions on stuff for years, and she's super awesome and she can pull out the best ideas also. But when we have the transcriptions edited and looked at, we kind of pull them out and it's sort of a collaborative effort. But I don't think there's any right or wrong way to do it. It's just what, you know, if you hear someone say something really profound, I would just write it down and say, yeah, that's a pretty good idea. The same way that if you read a book and you highlight it, I tend to look at interviews that same sort of way. And, you know, and I do some really interesting interviews that Dean. One of the things sometimes they may have absolutely nothing to do with say, I love marketing. Like, I recently interviewed a gal that wrote a book called Spirit Junkie. She's an ex drug addict and now has built a Gabrielle Bernstein. And I did an interview with her a couple days ago, and it's really about her take on spirituality and A Course in Miracles. And we talk about 12 step programs and stuff. And it has absolutely nothing to do with marketing except in the very end of the interview, we talk about it. And one of the things I'd love to have you do is kind of put it out there as a bonus to all the I love marketing subscribers and listen to it and if they like it, then great. If it's too weird for people, then don't. But I mean, I do interviews because it covers a lot of varieties of different topics, from fitness to working out to addiction, which I've struggled with in my life, which we usually don't talk about much. And I love marketing, but I talk about it on Genius Network and I think so as it relates to Dwight. Sometimes if you're doing interviews, you can have a very expansive sort of thing, kind of like a talk show where there's a variety of different subjects, or you can do things that are very specifically targeted for your niche, your subject matter, your product or your service. So it really how you do things kind of depends on how you set it up. But if any way you can do it to just put it out there for free and that will work to feed your funnel. I think that's a good model. And you can take what we're doing with. I love marketing and just look at what we're doing.

Here's another question. This one's from Cindy Evans. She says, hi, Joe. I've been a realtor for many years now, but I've moved into a new market area and I'm finding getting known and breaking into this market extremely difficult, to say the least. There are many large teams that myself and business partner are up against. And I am, for the first time in my career wondering if I can overcome this. I'm not naive and I know there's no quick fix, but maybe you could shed some light.

Now. Well, I'll let you respond to that one.

I was just gonna say I know a little bit about this.

Yeah, yeah. It's funny, a real estate question to me, you know, I mean, years ago, I love it.

So here's the thing that, that's a lot of the stuff that people deal with when they say moving into a new market area. And I'm finding getting known and breaking into this market extremely difficult. What's inherent in that is that moving from a market where maybe she was more known because she had been in the marketplace for a while and moving into a new market, the model seems to think that I've got to get known, I got to get my name out there. And it's a classic thing that we see almost always in real estate, especially because people are so used to this name recognition type of marketing where they're thinking, if I'm top of mind, then people will call me, so what can I do to get my name out there?

And.

And so I always focus on reframing that for people first. Because it's never about getting your name out there, especially in a situation where you're dealing with something that most people are not going to need in the next 12 months. You know, you mentioned, Joe, driving around neighborhoods and you can't tell who's going to break their tail key off in their lock or who's going to get broken into or move or whatever to need to get their house re keyed. Same thing with real estate. The important thing is that you don't need to be known to everybody. What would be very valuable is if you were known to the people who were going to actually move in the next 12 months. I shared this with you, Joe, before. One of the things that we always did at the main events at the big real estate seminars we did was I would give people a choice. I would say, let's imagine that this 500 person audience represents a 500 home subdivision. And in this room we've got 500 people who own the 500 homes in whatever subdivision we're trying to break into. And you've got a fundamental choice. If I were to say to you, I'm going to give you two minutes to come up here on stage, I'm going to let you introduce yourself, tell everybody all about you, and I'll hand out 500 of your business cards to everybody in the audience and help you get your name out there. That would be choice number one. Or you could sit right there in your seat anonymously and I'll have somebody bring you an envelope. And in that envelope would be a piece of paper with the name, address and telephone number of the 50 people in this room who are going to sell their home in the next 12 months. Which would you choose? And it was very interesting because, you know, when you present it like that, it becomes clearly obvious that every person would choose to have the name, address and phone number of every person that's going to sell in the next 12 months. And that's how you break into a market where you're not necessarily known. The advantage that you can have is that you can find out who the people who are going to be moving in the next 12 months are by doing lead generation cards rather than sending out a postcard that's all about you that would have your glamour shot and your logo and your slogan and, you know, call Cindy and start packing. All of those kind of things that you see real estate agents do. Trying to shout louder than the person who's already been shouting longer and louder in that marketplace. That's where it feels like you're in a difficult situation trying to break into that market. But what you really want to do is go underneath the radar, go under the radar with this. And if you were to send out a postcard that offered people a free report on a free August 2011 report on River Oaks house prices, that's going to appeal to the people who are going to be selling their house in the next six months. And when they respond to that now you can start getting known to those people. So it's kind of like a two step thing. You put your needs aside, you focus only on what your ideal prospect needs and offer them something in a way that Profit activator number two is compelling them to call so that they can identify themselves to you. And you do that a few months in a row and pretty soon out of those 500 homes, you've got the list of the 50 or 60 people who are going to have a much higher probability of selling in the next six to 12 months. And you're doing it in a real stealth way that nobody's even going to see it coming. That's my favorite way to go in and take over a neighborhood from somebody who's just been shouting their name longer and louder than anybody, you know. Yeah.

And you know what? When I was doing marketing a lot for when Bill Phillips owned EAS sports supplements and was publishing Muscle Media magazine back in the late 90s, you know, he sold EAS in 1999 for $300 million. And he would run image ads that would create name recognition that did not work in competitors magazines because all of the people that were knocking him off and copying him, he wanted them copying the ineffective marketing that he was doing so that he could continue to make a ton of money with all the stealth marketing he was doing by doing underground direct mail and things that weren't really on the radar. And the problem with wanting to get your name out there and wanting to get well known and we all, anyone that becomes a public figure, including myself, probably less of Dean, because Dean doesn't have much of a big ego. I will say, and maybe this is far stretching to say this, I think it's all ego based. And you know, there's a side that people want to be recognized. You know, people want everyone to know their name. And in so many marketing decisions that are the worst marketing, advertising and sales decisions are the ones that stem from this need to be out there. That is me saying this as a guy who's a gigantic name dropper who links himself to famous people that has this probably self esteem issue that needs me to feel good about myself when I connect with big players and stuff, you know, there's a lot more to it than that. So I don't in any way, shape or form want to like appear that I'm completely shallow. I'm partially shallow as a human being. But you know, the point is, is when you start, when you start, when you start making these decisions, you really got to say what is driving this? The need to actually service someone and help them and create value? Or is it this freaking ego based need to just feel important because so many people just do all this crap because they want to look Cool. And you know, like if don't quit trying to look cool, just be cool. If you want people to think you're frickin cool, help them, you know, offer them something of service. Communicate it into a way that, where they really get it. Use emotional language that engages them. And that emotional language has nothing to do with you most of the time. It has to do with what you can do for them. I mean, you know, there's these tried freaking cliches as you know what they. What's the customer's favorite radio station? Wiifm. What's in it for me? As goofy and corny as that sounds, it's actually true. People don't give a shit about what's going on with other people most of the time. I'm not talking about the celebrity gossip side. There's a reason people read Us magazine and People magazine and National Enquirer because they're fixated on living vicariously. But that's completely different than trying to position something to sell. Reading People magazine is different than reading an advertisement and wanting to give someone money and go to the store and buy it or go online and purchase it. So really focus. Everything you're saying, Dean, I totally agree with. So anyway, I've said enough. I'm going to go back into my shallow space of being Joe Polish.

Okay, well let's keep the fun going here. And you know what? I'm going to do a shameless plug here because Cindy, here's the very best thing you can do to break into a new market like that is go to gettinglistings.com and look at the video. I've got a video on there on how to get listings in today's market. And that whole program is specifically for breaking into any market that you want to dominate. So there you go, here's one. Joe, I want to talk a little bit about this because I'm in this situation exactly myself here. So Patrick Dennehy asks how do I Market a 44 person assisted living facility that focuses on dementia and Alzheimer's in a competitive California market? And you know, it's interesting to me specifically because I've mentioned before, but my mother is sort of in mid stages of Alzheimer's right now. And so I'm very of aware, aware of the stuff that is, that's going on here. And one of the things that jumped out at me immediately is, you know, a 44 person assisted living facility sounds like sort of a small, you know, a smaller, nice facility. And I think that the market for people who are going to need this facility is not a mystery. I mean, it's not really that all of a sudden somebody's going to need an assisted living facility for dementia and Alzheimer's. It slowly kind of creeps up on you. It's not a disease that all of a sudden you get it and then you need full time care. There's definitely a progression. So the people who are going to fill those 44, those 44 spots are out there now probably for two or three or four years, maybe even before they're ready for a facility like that. And I think that what you do, what I would love to see, because as I said, I'm going through it myself, is you ever see those books on what to expect when you're expecting, talks about every week of a pregnancy kind of thing, what to expect in the third to fifth week and what to expect and the things. It would be very valuable to have some consumer awareness guides that would be of use to people who have parents who are in this situation. Because that's the reality is that you're not. Your customer ultimately isn't the person who has Alzheimer's. They're not going to be the decision maker in all of this. It's going to be the loved ones, either the husband or the wife or the children or caregivers of the person who has Alzheimer's. And I think that if you're prepared knowing that there's going to be a long period of time where you can sort of educate people. You know, it's funny, Joe, but we're talking about, you know, everything comes back to these eight profit activators. You know, if you're identifying your target market as people who are. Even if you can go to the point where you are identifying somebody who has just been diagnosed with Alzheimer's, because that's when the biggest question marks come for the person who is now going to be the caregiver. So imagine, you know, be the husband or wife or the, or the children whose mother or father has just been diagnosed with Alzheimer's. There's so many questions that you have. There's so much that you, you know, you kind of want to know what to expect. And even though with a disease like Alzheimer's there's no definite timeline, there's definitely very similar phases that people go through. And the period of time from the time they're diagnosed to the time where they're going to need care, which is different than supervision, is potentially a multi year thing. It could be two to three years before they ultimately get ready for an assisted living facility. And I think that if you can create a list, generate relationships with people who have just been diagnosed and profit activator number three, educate and motivate them by providing information. If somebody were sending me right now a monthly or every other month newsletter with Alzheimer's information and tips and, you know, stories, or introducing me to a community of people, there's so much opportunity for that that, you know, filling a 44 person facility would be. You could get to a point where you have a waiting list for people coming in there.

I completely agree. I mean it's building a list, there's a long timeline. It's really nurturing and educating people. And if you haven't. His name is Patrick, right?

Yes. Right, yeah.

So Patrick, if you haven't listened to our episodes on education based marketing and stuff, I'd go back and listen to some of those and that's what I would put together. And if you need to have someone interview you about all of the stuff that you do, I mean one way that everyone can do this and this applies to everyone listening, there's an expertise and knowledge that you have about what it is you are selling and what it is you are offering that other people do not. If you simply think of all the questions that people ask you or when you are going through your learning process or any learning process, you are trying to figure out how to buy something or invest in something or get involved in something, you start asking questions or you start reading, looking for answers. What you need is you need questions and you need answers because people that are out there looking for things to buy have questions and most of them are unspoken and unexpressed. And so the job of the marketer is to know what it is that they are going to ask and also know what it is that would be useful for them to know, but they don't know how to ask. So that like one of the things we talked about on our education based marketing, you know, I love marketing calls were it's all with a. That people don't know that they don't know that if you were to provide them with the answers to those would be not only beneficial and helpful to them, but it could also see that you are the go to person when it comes to whatever it is you're selling. So in this particular case, just help people and you can have someone sit down and interview you and you can do it on audio and then get it transcribed and that can become the original script for a free recorded message, a sales letter, website copy if you want to do it on video, if you think you can do it in one take, then just have someone videotape you and just ask you questions and have a Q and A section online or create a dvd, a consumer awareness dvd, that sort of stuff, all of that would be really beneficial. I cannot not say this, Dean. I mean, there's been a lot of. For people with lots of brain conditions, Alzheimer's, dementia, that have been helped through hyperbaric oxygen, which I recently started doing myself because I have a tad bit of frontal lobe damage that I recently discovered when I did a brain scan through my friend and client, Dr. Daniel Amen, who has Amen clinics around the country. And just putting that out there, that has nothing to do with marketing. But there's been some miraculous things that have happened to people and I've actually seen some great improvements with people in bad situations with doing hyperbaric oxygen in a pressurized chamber. But anyway, that's different from a consumer awareness guide. I think writing a consumer awareness guide in a hyperbaric oxygen chamber would perhaps be an interesting experience.

But you know, the interesting thing is when you say, like my immediate thought, like I always, as soon as I see a business model like this, like, I see the structure of what works, I know the constraint of this is that you're. He's got a 44 person assisted living facility. So they're going to have, you know, 44. If you got 44 clients, your, you, your business is full, basically, right? But if you start thinking upstream, especially in a situation like this where, you know, if you were to create.

A.

Solution for the people who are not yet in that assisted living facility, need, where if they were to do a day program or to certify some caregivers who go into your home and do those kind of things, like to start thinking about what other things in this category could we do that? If you had a caregiver companion type of squad, people who were trained and able to go out into the community and work with people who just need supervision and companionship in their own home until they're ready to go into the assisted living facility that you're creating your.

Own.

You know, feeder system in a way almost like creating a, you know, a thing that those are the people who have, who are going to be the ones who fill those 44 spots and what do they need now? And that's kind of a great exercise for you. And one that we'll talk more about in depth at the I Love Marketing conference is, is really looking at the totality of the category that you are in and what other needs do people have before they consume your product or service and after they consume your product and service. If you just kind of expanded out the rings around that, where are those opportunities? Even if it were, you know, doing special, special education things that you could partner with other companies who are already doing the companion care, there's a big opportunity for that in every category. And this is one of those situations where we're talking about, we're talking about apples and they need to really think this through of how that, how does that apply to their oranges?

No, exactly. And I will say this will be a plug for the I Love Marketing conference or the videos we are giving out as part of that event. A freaking manual that is specific templates and examples of all of the eight profit activators, different things you do before, during and after successful sales, cost consumer guides, various marketing tools that people can basically take and swipe and use. And I think just having that manual alone is worth many, many times the investment of coming to the conference. Because we're assembling literally marketing strategies and promotions that have brought in millions of dollars and we're giving that to everybody. So it's something that every marketer should have in their arsenal. And so if you're not able to make the event live, which I highly recommend, if you've got anything, if you just listen to this because it's going to be so close to the time we actually release this episode. If you can make it live, get registered, you can call the office if you have any questions at 480-858-0008. If anyone ever needs the phone number to my office, not to talk to me because I'm expensive. So I don't take unsolicited calls and say, get on the phone with Joe. I'm hardly actually ever in my office, but I do have a great staff and that's always@joepolish.com where the phone number is and all that sort of stuff. But come to the conference or watch it live via webcast or get a copy of the videos. Not only so you can see all of the training where me and Dean go really deep on all of this. But getting a hold of replicatable marketing campaigns, education based marketing stuff, all the stuff that you're going to need for before, during and after. So just wanted to say that just in the slight possibility that someone wants to give us some money.

How we doing on time?

I mean, we're almost wrapped up. If you Want to do a real quick. We can do that. If not, we can just say sing Kumbaya and call it a wrap.

Okay, well, let's do that. Let's wrap up. I think what's the common thread here that we've been talking about? We've been looking at these and I think and hope that what people sense when we're answering these questions is getting a view of how we actually think about these questions. You know, like our initial thought process is always to see what, what is the, what is the profit activator that, that this is going to address? I mean, when you really look at it, everything we've, we've talked about today was really the before unit stuff. But every one of those situations was answered by applying and thinking about one of the, the profit activators, whether it was from selecting or signaling target market, compelling them to call you, educating and motivating them to meet you. Those, those things in the before unit, when you really start looking at them, are the, that's the way that we think about these things, you know, and having all those different sort of approaches to things really helps you identify maybe what the best strategy is for your situation. And I think that's really, you know, you mentioned about the apples and oranges, and I think that's really where.

Where.

Our advantage comes is because you and I have been exposed to so many different applications of these, not just in one business that we can see definitely how something applies from another business to whatever business we're talking about.

Yeah. And I have done some consulting for some of the most bizarre things and seen some of the most bizarre things under the sun. I mean, I've and remember meeting with a group of people that do cryonics where they basically suspend people in liquid nitrogen to bring them back to life in a future. My advice to them was there are so many social ramifications about what you guys are doing. Celebrity endorsement, that's the marketing method there. But yeah, me and Dean have seen so many different businesses, from just normal ones to bizarre. But all businesses have a before, during and after unit. They have to emotionally engage people in a bigger result.